Yupei Zhao
Biographic Data
| ID | 3855847 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yupei Zhao |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yupei |
| FAMILY NAME | Zhao |
| SIGNATURE | ZHAO Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | Zhejiang University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1928-1151 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Engineering Presence: Digital Humans and Sensory Regimes on China's AI-Driven Social Media Platforms
This study investigates how digital humans reconfigure sensory experiences and sociocultural meanings within China's platformised cultural economy. Adopting a sensory culture framework, the study integrates semi-structured interviews with industry practitioners, non-participant observations of emerging applications, and multimodal discourse analysis of digital human artefacts. The findings reveal that developers deploy three analytically distinct…
Human–technology entanglement in digital-human themed talent shows programmes: Multi-interactivity of biopower in Alter Ego
This study explores the integration of digital-humans in the talent show Alter Ego and its ramifications. It aims to examine how, and to what extent, biopower is exercised by performers and manifested among judges, hosts, contestants, and audiences, thereby contributing to the literature on human–machine interactions and biopower. We combined textual discourse analysis of the show's lines with a visual discourse analysis of choreographic sets, on…
Inclusive, expressive, connective: How lifestyle sports shape youth culture in China
We adopt the definition of youth provided by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, which defines youth as individuals aged 14 to 35 years old, because it reflects a nationally recognized standard that aligns with demographic and policy frameworks in China.This definition is particularly relevant for understanding social, cultural, and economic dynamics, as it encompasses a critical developmental phase characterized by education, early caree…
Reconfiguring "Heritage hip-hop" From the scenes: Rightful youth rebellion and localised authenticity in the Huxiang Flow
Limited self-enterprise: Liminality, normativity, and commodity of Chinese game streamers
Technologies of the self (-deception): Confidence, optimism and effort of Chinese esports players
Researchers have begun to focus on the esports player community and suggest that governments and industries take external means to address the difficulties of players. In contrast, this study investigated the subjectivity of professional players and technologies of the self in neoliberal esports. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with active and retired Chinese esports players, we found that esports players typically employ three self-technologies …
Unveiling factors and contingencies influencing exhaustion in professional esports players: Evidence from China
Purpose The rapid growth of professional esports has highlighted the lack of a universally recognised governing body to standardise operations and competition rules. This absence presents many challenges. A key concern is the well-being of professional esports players (e-pro-players), who often suffer from exhaustion. This study aims to examine the factors contributing to exhaustion among e-pro-players. Design/methodology/approach Using the conse…
The Continuity of eSports Athletes' Careers: Skill Transformation, Personal Development, and Well-Being
Despite the rapid growth of the eSports industry with respect to its economic scale and the demand for eSports players, the career transformation experiences and well-being of eSports athletes have been largely overlooked. This study aims to explore eSports athletes' personal development in terms of career continuity, associated skill transformation, and well-being after retirement. Employing non-participatory observations and semi-structured int…
Toward cultural and creative industry: Chinese eSports through a business ecosystem lens
The field of electronic sports (eSports) is thriving worldwide but has received limited attention as a cultural and creative industry (CCI). This study is the first to employ three layers (productivity, robustness, and niche creation) of the business ecosystem (BE) to systematically examine the flourishing eSports sector and its development as a CCI-BE. It also maps out the dynamic and emerging stakeholders that have contributed to the eSports ec…
Localization and mainstream emergence of hip-hop music in China: A critical transculturalism perspective
Hip-hop culture has evolved into a global phenomenon, attracting extensive academic research on its adaptation and localization in different societies. However, most studies have either neglected the influence of political economic power on hybridization or have overestimated the rationality of the artists in hip-hop culture. This study adopted critical transculturalism theory to shed light on the agency and power relations involved in the locali…
Enthusiastic Admiration Is the First Principle of Knowledge and Its Last”: A Qualitative Study of Admiration for the Famous
The concept of fame has been associated with celebrities, wealth, attractiveness, and social recognition. Nevertheless, people have admiration for the famous who may not be celebrities. Admiration is regarded as one of the emotions of appreciation, or moral emotions, triggered by positive appraisals of excellence. It is present when seeing extraordinary displays of skills talent or achievement. However, theoretical and empirical research on admir…
(Dis)Assembling eSports: Material Actors and Relational Networks in the Chinese eSports Industry
Previous studies on eSports have essentially focused on its “sportiness” without giving attention to aspects such as media, information, and technology. By assessing the emerging research field of eSports through the lens of Actor-Network Theory, this study regards the Chinese eSports industry as an assemblage of heterogeneous elements. Accordingly, this study disassembles and unpacks eSports to understand how it is assembled, disassembled, and r…
Umbrella platform of Tencent eSports industry in China
China has embarked on a radical transformation of its online and mobile games industry since its government announced its ambition to be a global sporting power. This study investigates Chinese electronic sports (eSports) in the context of platform governance and platform capitalism, through a case study of the platformization of Tencent, one of China’s largest media conglomerates. We employ a boundary analysis of platform documentation, a docume…
Political irony as self-censorship practice? Examining dissidents’ use of Weibo in the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive Election
This research examines the knowledge constructed in political ironic discourses, which is associated with different models of practicing self-censorship, taking a case study of the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive Election via social media Weibo. Critical discourse analysis, the verbal irony principle and semi-structured interviews were employed to compare participants from mainland China and Hong Kong, including opinion leaders and casual users. T…
Self-enterprising eSports: Meritocracy, precarity, and disposability of eSports players in China
The emerging realm of eSports has become an inescapable part of overall sports and game culture. However, this study investigates eSports beyond sports and games, regarding it as a meta-change in the context of neoliberal Chinese society. In particular, this study focuses on the practices of Chinese eSports players to explore research questions of why and how eSports practitioners, especially professional players in China, have transformed themse…
Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players
In China, the expanding eSports culture has produced a vast cohort of video-game players whose peak age ranges between 16 and 22 years. This study explores the dynamic identity transformation and mental wellbeing development processes of eSports professionals in a risk-prone society. It comprises in-depth interviews with players, coaches, managers, and commentators working in 15 top eSports clubs in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzh…
Jianghu flow’: Examining cultural resonance in The Rap of China
The online reality show The Rap of China has become ingrained in Chinese popular culture. However, since 18 January 2018, the hip-hop subculture in China has been censored by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. This study aims to analyse the cultural resonance of Chinese hip-hop, and to identify how hip-hop reflects the changing contours of ideology in Chinese digital youth culture. The study applies critic…
Beyond Celebrity Politics: Celebrity as Governmentality in China
This article investigates the crucial political dimension of celebrity. Specifically, it examines celebrities' great potential for governmentality in the Chinese context by tracing the history of celebrities in Confucian, Maoist, and post-Maoist governmentalities. It concludes that this type of governmentality, namely, celebrity as governmentality, displays uniquely Chinese characteristics in that it is a set of knowledge, discourses, and techniq…
Rappers as Knights-Errant: Classic Allusions in the Mainstreaming of Chinese Rap
Through our analysis of the performances and corpus of lyrics produced on the Reality TV show The Rap of China, we investigate how discrete Chinese inflections refract globally resonant hip-hop themes such as representations of masculinity and loyalty. We identify how rappers use classical Chinese cultural templates, invoking the knights-errant who populate the physical and ideational realm of Jianghu that underpins China’s long tradition of folk…
Towards SoMoLo journalism and SoMoLo activism: Case studies of Macau netizens' digital practices
The emergence and convergence of social, mobile and locative technologies have inspired scholars to develop the concept of 'SoMoLo' to study the changing forms of journalism and activism in this new context. This study therefore attempts to further develop this concept, rejuvenating the older 'media and movement' tradition and especially the 'journalism and activism' relationship to explore how and why SoMoLo journalism coexists interdependently …
The Political Cultures of Forwarding on Chinese Social Media: Lessons From Hong Kong Chief Executive Election
This research draws on De Maeyer's three-level mixed methodological framework and examines how, and to what extent social media users interpret their ideological use of "forwarding" for political participation with explicit and implicit political purposes on social media. It does so by examining the case of the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election. Quantitative content analysis ( N = 22,172) and semi-structured interviews ( N = 150) are combin…
Emerging Research Communities of Practice Versus the Popular Vision of Interdisciplinarity? Insights from Digital Research in the United Kingdom
Objective This article shows how social science and humanities researchers in the United Kingdom who make use of digital tools, resources, and services understand and perceive interdisciplinarity and their related experiences and needs. Methods The study examined 10 cases of U.K.‐based research, two from each of the following social science and humanities disciplines: business/management, education, history, literature, and politics. Data collect…
A 'Two-Level Social Capital Analysis' of the Role of Online Communication in Civic Activism: Lessons From the Role of Facebook in the Sunflower Movement
In this article, we propose a 'two-level social capital analysis' for the study of the role of online communication in new, contemporary forms of civic activism. We assess the applicability and value of the proposed analytical framework in a small-scale study of the role of Facebook in Taiwan's Sunflower Movement. The case study showcases that the proposed two-level social capital analysis can offer depth and nuance in the analysis of the role of…
Rappers as Knights-Errant: Classic Allusions in the Mainstreaming of Chinese Rap
Through our analysis of the performances and corpus of lyrics produced on the Reality TV show The Rap of China, we investigate how discrete Chinese inflections refract globally resonant hip-hop themes such as representations of masculinity and loyalty. We identify how rappers use classical Chinese cultural templates, invoking the knights-errant who populate the physical and ideational realm of Jianghu that underpins China’s long tradition of folk…
Self-enterprising eSports: Meritocracy, precarity, and disposability of eSports players in China
The emerging realm of eSports has become an inescapable part of overall sports and game culture. However, this study investigates eSports beyond sports and games, regarding it as a meta-change in the context of neoliberal Chinese society. In particular, this study focuses on the practices of Chinese eSports players to explore research questions of why and how eSports practitioners, especially professional players in China, have transformed themse…
Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players
In China, the expanding eSports culture has produced a vast cohort of video-game players whose peak age ranges between 16 and 22 years. This study explores the dynamic identity transformation and mental wellbeing development processes of eSports professionals in a risk-prone society. It comprises in-depth interviews with players, coaches, managers, and commentators working in 15 top eSports clubs in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzh…
Jianghu flow’: Examining cultural resonance in The Rap of China
The online reality show The Rap of China has become ingrained in Chinese popular culture. However, since 18 January 2018, the hip-hop subculture in China has been censored by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. This study aims to analyse the cultural resonance of Chinese hip-hop, and to identify how hip-hop reflects the changing contours of ideology in Chinese digital youth culture. The study applies critic…
Umbrella platform of Tencent eSports industry in China
China has embarked on a radical transformation of its online and mobile games industry since its government announced its ambition to be a global sporting power. This study investigates Chinese electronic sports (eSports) in the context of platform governance and platform capitalism, through a case study of the platformization of Tencent, one of China’s largest media conglomerates. We employ a boundary analysis of platform documentation, a docume…
A 'Two-Level Social Capital Analysis' of the Role of Online Communication in Civic Activism: Lessons From the Role of Facebook in the Sunflower Movement
In this article, we propose a 'two-level social capital analysis' for the study of the role of online communication in new, contemporary forms of civic activism. We assess the applicability and value of the proposed analytical framework in a small-scale study of the role of Facebook in Taiwan's Sunflower Movement. The case study showcases that the proposed two-level social capital analysis can offer depth and nuance in the analysis of the role of…
Beyond Celebrity Politics: Celebrity as Governmentality in China
This article investigates the crucial political dimension of celebrity. Specifically, it examines celebrities' great potential for governmentality in the Chinese context by tracing the history of celebrities in Confucian, Maoist, and post-Maoist governmentalities. It concludes that this type of governmentality, namely, celebrity as governmentality, displays uniquely Chinese characteristics in that it is a set of knowledge, discourses, and techniq…
Inclusive, expressive, connective: How lifestyle sports shape youth culture in China
We adopt the definition of youth provided by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, which defines youth as individuals aged 14 to 35 years old, because it reflects a nationally recognized standard that aligns with demographic and policy frameworks in China.This definition is particularly relevant for understanding social, cultural, and economic dynamics, as it encompasses a critical developmental phase characterized by education, early caree…
Reconfiguring "Heritage hip-hop" From the scenes: Rightful youth rebellion and localised authenticity in the Huxiang Flow
Localization and mainstream emergence of hip-hop music in China: A critical transculturalism perspective
Hip-hop culture has evolved into a global phenomenon, attracting extensive academic research on its adaptation and localization in different societies. However, most studies have either neglected the influence of political economic power on hybridization or have overestimated the rationality of the artists in hip-hop culture. This study adopted critical transculturalism theory to shed light on the agency and power relations involved in the locali…
(Dis)Assembling eSports: Material Actors and Relational Networks in the Chinese eSports Industry
Previous studies on eSports have essentially focused on its “sportiness” without giving attention to aspects such as media, information, and technology. By assessing the emerging research field of eSports through the lens of Actor-Network Theory, this study regards the Chinese eSports industry as an assemblage of heterogeneous elements. Accordingly, this study disassembles and unpacks eSports to understand how it is assembled, disassembled, and r…
Limited self-enterprise: Liminality, normativity, and commodity of Chinese game streamers
The Political Cultures of Forwarding on Chinese Social Media: Lessons From Hong Kong Chief Executive Election
This research draws on De Maeyer's three-level mixed methodological framework and examines how, and to what extent social media users interpret their ideological use of "forwarding" for political participation with explicit and implicit political purposes on social media. It does so by examining the case of the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election. Quantitative content analysis ( N = 22,172) and semi-structured interviews ( N = 150) are combin…
Emerging Research Communities of Practice Versus the Popular Vision of Interdisciplinarity? Insights from Digital Research in the United Kingdom
Objective This article shows how social science and humanities researchers in the United Kingdom who make use of digital tools, resources, and services understand and perceive interdisciplinarity and their related experiences and needs. Methods The study examined 10 cases of U.K.‐based research, two from each of the following social science and humanities disciplines: business/management, education, history, literature, and politics. Data collect…
A 'Two-Level Social Capital Analysis' of the Role of Online Communication in Civic Activism: Lessons From the Role of Facebook in the Sunflower Movement
In this article, we propose a 'two-level social capital analysis' for the study of the role of online communication in new, contemporary forms of civic activism. We assess the applicability and value of the proposed analytical framework in a small-scale study of the role of Facebook in Taiwan's Sunflower Movement. The case study showcases that the proposed two-level social capital analysis can offer depth and nuance in the analysis of the role of…
Emerging Research Communities of Practice Versus the Popular Vision of Interdisciplinarity? Insights from Digital Research in the United Kingdom
Objective This article shows how social science and humanities researchers in the United Kingdom who make use of digital tools, resources, and services understand and perceive interdisciplinarity and their related experiences and needs. Methods The study examined 10 cases of U.K.‐based research, two from each of the following social science and humanities disciplines: business/management, education, history, literature, and politics. Data collect…
Rappers as Knights-Errant: Classic Allusions in the Mainstreaming of Chinese Rap
Through our analysis of the performances and corpus of lyrics produced on the Reality TV show The Rap of China, we investigate how discrete Chinese inflections refract globally resonant hip-hop themes such as representations of masculinity and loyalty. We identify how rappers use classical Chinese cultural templates, invoking the knights-errant who populate the physical and ideational realm of Jianghu that underpins China’s long tradition of folk…
Towards SoMoLo journalism and SoMoLo activism: Case studies of Macau netizens' digital practices
The emergence and convergence of social, mobile and locative technologies have inspired scholars to develop the concept of 'SoMoLo' to study the changing forms of journalism and activism in this new context. This study therefore attempts to further develop this concept, rejuvenating the older 'media and movement' tradition and especially the 'journalism and activism' relationship to explore how and why SoMoLo journalism coexists interdependently …
The Political Cultures of Forwarding on Chinese Social Media: Lessons From Hong Kong Chief Executive Election
This research draws on De Maeyer's three-level mixed methodological framework and examines how, and to what extent social media users interpret their ideological use of "forwarding" for political participation with explicit and implicit political purposes on social media. It does so by examining the case of the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election. Quantitative content analysis ( N = 22,172) and semi-structured interviews ( N = 150) are combin…
Political irony as self-censorship practice? Examining dissidents’ use of Weibo in the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive Election
This research examines the knowledge constructed in political ironic discourses, which is associated with different models of practicing self-censorship, taking a case study of the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive Election via social media Weibo. Critical discourse analysis, the verbal irony principle and semi-structured interviews were employed to compare participants from mainland China and Hong Kong, including opinion leaders and casual users. T…
Self-enterprising eSports: Meritocracy, precarity, and disposability of eSports players in China
The emerging realm of eSports has become an inescapable part of overall sports and game culture. However, this study investigates eSports beyond sports and games, regarding it as a meta-change in the context of neoliberal Chinese society. In particular, this study focuses on the practices of Chinese eSports players to explore research questions of why and how eSports practitioners, especially professional players in China, have transformed themse…
Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players
In China, the expanding eSports culture has produced a vast cohort of video-game players whose peak age ranges between 16 and 22 years. This study explores the dynamic identity transformation and mental wellbeing development processes of eSports professionals in a risk-prone society. It comprises in-depth interviews with players, coaches, managers, and commentators working in 15 top eSports clubs in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzh…
Jianghu flow’: Examining cultural resonance in The Rap of China
The online reality show The Rap of China has become ingrained in Chinese popular culture. However, since 18 January 2018, the hip-hop subculture in China has been censored by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. This study aims to analyse the cultural resonance of Chinese hip-hop, and to identify how hip-hop reflects the changing contours of ideology in Chinese digital youth culture. The study applies critic…
Beyond Celebrity Politics: Celebrity as Governmentality in China
This article investigates the crucial political dimension of celebrity. Specifically, it examines celebrities' great potential for governmentality in the Chinese context by tracing the history of celebrities in Confucian, Maoist, and post-Maoist governmentalities. It concludes that this type of governmentality, namely, celebrity as governmentality, displays uniquely Chinese characteristics in that it is a set of knowledge, discourses, and techniq…
Enthusiastic Admiration Is the First Principle of Knowledge and Its Last”: A Qualitative Study of Admiration for the Famous
The concept of fame has been associated with celebrities, wealth, attractiveness, and social recognition. Nevertheless, people have admiration for the famous who may not be celebrities. Admiration is regarded as one of the emotions of appreciation, or moral emotions, triggered by positive appraisals of excellence. It is present when seeing extraordinary displays of skills talent or achievement. However, theoretical and empirical research on admir…
(Dis)Assembling eSports: Material Actors and Relational Networks in the Chinese eSports Industry
Previous studies on eSports have essentially focused on its “sportiness” without giving attention to aspects such as media, information, and technology. By assessing the emerging research field of eSports through the lens of Actor-Network Theory, this study regards the Chinese eSports industry as an assemblage of heterogeneous elements. Accordingly, this study disassembles and unpacks eSports to understand how it is assembled, disassembled, and r…
Umbrella platform of Tencent eSports industry in China
China has embarked on a radical transformation of its online and mobile games industry since its government announced its ambition to be a global sporting power. This study investigates Chinese electronic sports (eSports) in the context of platform governance and platform capitalism, through a case study of the platformization of Tencent, one of China’s largest media conglomerates. We employ a boundary analysis of platform documentation, a docume…
Localization and mainstream emergence of hip-hop music in China: A critical transculturalism perspective
Hip-hop culture has evolved into a global phenomenon, attracting extensive academic research on its adaptation and localization in different societies. However, most studies have either neglected the influence of political economic power on hybridization or have overestimated the rationality of the artists in hip-hop culture. This study adopted critical transculturalism theory to shed light on the agency and power relations involved in the locali…
Toward cultural and creative industry: Chinese eSports through a business ecosystem lens
The field of electronic sports (eSports) is thriving worldwide but has received limited attention as a cultural and creative industry (CCI). This study is the first to employ three layers (productivity, robustness, and niche creation) of the business ecosystem (BE) to systematically examine the flourishing eSports sector and its development as a CCI-BE. It also maps out the dynamic and emerging stakeholders that have contributed to the eSports ec…
Limited self-enterprise: Liminality, normativity, and commodity of Chinese game streamers
Technologies of the self (-deception): Confidence, optimism and effort of Chinese esports players
Researchers have begun to focus on the esports player community and suggest that governments and industries take external means to address the difficulties of players. In contrast, this study investigated the subjectivity of professional players and technologies of the self in neoliberal esports. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with active and retired Chinese esports players, we found that esports players typically employ three self-technologies …
Unveiling factors and contingencies influencing exhaustion in professional esports players: Evidence from China
Purpose The rapid growth of professional esports has highlighted the lack of a universally recognised governing body to standardise operations and competition rules. This absence presents many challenges. A key concern is the well-being of professional esports players (e-pro-players), who often suffer from exhaustion. This study aims to examine the factors contributing to exhaustion among e-pro-players. Design/methodology/approach Using the conse…
The Continuity of eSports Athletes' Careers: Skill Transformation, Personal Development, and Well-Being
Despite the rapid growth of the eSports industry with respect to its economic scale and the demand for eSports players, the career transformation experiences and well-being of eSports athletes have been largely overlooked. This study aims to explore eSports athletes' personal development in terms of career continuity, associated skill transformation, and well-being after retirement. Employing non-participatory observations and semi-structured int…
Inclusive, expressive, connective: How lifestyle sports shape youth culture in China
We adopt the definition of youth provided by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, which defines youth as individuals aged 14 to 35 years old, because it reflects a nationally recognized standard that aligns with demographic and policy frameworks in China.This definition is particularly relevant for understanding social, cultural, and economic dynamics, as it encompasses a critical developmental phase characterized by education, early caree…
Reconfiguring "Heritage hip-hop" From the scenes: Rightful youth rebellion and localised authenticity in the Huxiang Flow
Engineering Presence: Digital Humans and Sensory Regimes on China's AI-Driven Social Media Platforms
This study investigates how digital humans reconfigure sensory experiences and sociocultural meanings within China's platformised cultural economy. Adopting a sensory culture framework, the study integrates semi-structured interviews with industry practitioners, non-participant observations of emerging applications, and multimodal discourse analysis of digital human artefacts. The findings reveal that developers deploy three analytically distinct…
Human–technology entanglement in digital-human themed talent shows programmes: Multi-interactivity of biopower in Alter Ego
This study explores the integration of digital-humans in the talent show Alter Ego and its ramifications. It aims to examine how, and to what extent, biopower is exercised by performers and manifested among judges, hosts, contestants, and audiences, thereby contributing to the literature on human–machine interactions and biopower. We combined textual discourse analysis of the show's lines with a visual discourse analysis of choreographic sets, on…
Political science (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · China (11 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Art (7 works) · Business (7 works) · Digital Games and Media (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics (6 works)